


Collecting

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [31]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood Drinking, Exposition, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Plans, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-15 00:31:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1284517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Information is gathered and shared, plans are made, implications are sorted out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collecting

**Author's Note:**

> Part four, "Waiting for the Kill."
> 
>  **Original Characters** : Mallory Cambridge

“Shit,” Tara mutters, breaking away from the frat boy she’s currently drinking from.

“What?” Jessica asks. Her eyes are slightly glazed, her lips are sticky with her own frat boy’s blood.

“Someone at the door,” Tara hisses. Sure enough, there’s an insistent knocking right outside. “Hang back.” Then, to the mystery outsider, “It’s occupied.”

“Tara? It’s Mallory.” She sounds a bit anxious, but calmer than someone else might be. Tara assumes that the girl knows what they are, so she probably knows what they’re doing. “Willa sent me to come find you.”

“Just a second,” Jessica adds, sounding still just the slightest bit dazed. She mumbles instructions at her snack, then wipes at her mouth with the back of her hand; Tara does the same before they emerge. The boys will make their exit once there’s no chance the connection between them will be made.

“We’ve got the guard dog,” Mallory says with a smile. “Upstairs and ready. Y’all good?”

Tara – who’s definitely content now – looks at Jessica – who just looks like she wants more. “Yeah,” she nods, waiting for a contradictory answer. “Let’s do this.”

 

* * *

 

The babies are already returned, spread around the table with the sheaves of information snaffled for them, when Nora and Pam come through the door. Nora’s accent, Eric notices, has gone a bit less formal, a bit more what he’s always understood to be natural for her, and that in turn means she’s gotten more comfortable than when they left. Small mercies.

“I suppose I’ve just never seen the point,” Nora is saying.

“They _are_ the point, Auntie,” Pam drawls. “You’ve got a whole eternity, mix it up.”

“What are you two on about?” Eric asks (the first thing that comes to his mind is lovers, but he knows that while his sister has her _types_ , she’s not exactly unadventurous).

Pam smirks, Nora looks almost sheepish. “Shoes,” they chorus.

And of course, this prompts Eric to burst out laughing. Not because of the subject matter, exactly, but because of the way that Nora looks so guilty about it (he assumes for having been caught wasting precious time in the midst of their almost-apocalypse).

“Well, we found some shit out,” Tara pipes up, gesturing to the table in front of her. “How did you do?”

“Found a few things,” Pam shrugs, sliding over behind Tara and tangling fingers in her hair. With a rather mischievous glance over at Nora, she adds, “Some information, too.”

Nora doesn’t have her recently-fucked look about her, so Eric’s only comment is, “Am I the only one who didn’t get a live meal tonight?”

Willa and Jessica look each other, shrugging, but before anyone can say anything further, a phone starts buzzing and everyone immediately searches their person to see if it’s theirs. Unsurprisingly, it’s Tara’s, and she rolls her eyes as she picks up and presses speakerphone, shushing everyone with a wave of her hand. “Hey, Sook.”

“Hey,” Sookie replies, sounding rather tentative, and after a moment she adds, “Am I on speaker?”

“Hi, Sookie,” Jessica calls out as an answer to the question, smiling politely and waving though obviously Sookie can’t see her.

“Good evening, everyone,” Sookie sighs. “Who all’s here?”

There’s a pause before answering, then Eric strides over to say, “Myself, Nora, Pam, Jessica, Tara, and Willa.”

“Who’s Willa?” Sookie asks.

“Isn’t that the governor’s daughter?” another voice can be heard saying. “That’s what that guy said.”

“Sounds like we’re on speaker, too,” Tara says dryly, earning Eric’s approving nod for changing the subject – he’ll get to that in a minute.

“Caught me,” Sookie says. “It’s me and the Bellefleur girls, the ones you and Pam met. That was Adilyn.”

“Hey, everyone,” four oh-so-sweet voices chorus.

“Well,” Eric declares. “The gang’s all here. Did you have a reason for calling, Miss Stackhouse?”

“Yeah,” Sookie agrees, and even Willa can hear the eyeroll in her voice. “I left Tara a voicemail yesterday, and she never called back, so I thought I’d try her again, bring her up to speed.”

“Go for it,” Tara says.

“Well, I talked to my fairy godfather about Jason,” Sookie begins, sighing. “We’re gonna try hittin’ him with more light to see if that fixes the Elder’s magicks.”

“What the hell’s she talkin’ about?” Willa asks in a whisper, aiming the question mostly at Nora, who’s standing nearest her and happens to be the most likely to explain things correctly, and so as not to disturb the phone call, Nora grabs a blank piece of paper and starts writing out the whole story in convenient, orderly bullet points.

“Wonderful,” Pam interjects. “That’s really worth sharing with us?”

“We heard some rumors about Bill, too,” Sookie continues.

“He’s got a gang or somethin’ now,” a different one of the girls adds.

“Yeah, we know,” Pam counters. “We’ve got sources too.”

“And there’s this whole thing with the governor’s daughter,” _another_ of the fairy girls continues. It’s easy, Pam thinks, to imagine them all climbing over each other to get to the phone, clamoring and grinning and eager. They’re kids, even if they look like teenagers, and she expects they’ll behave like that. “They think she mighta been taken by Bill’s gang, they definitely think it was vampires.”

“Yes and no,” Nora murmurs.

“Perhaps it would be better if you all came over tomorrow night and we got to this,” Eric suggests. “If it’s not past your friends’ bedtime.”

“We don’t have a bedtime,” one of the girls declares haughtily.

“Then that’s perfect,” Eric intones. “Be over an hour after sunset and we’ll get this all taken care of.”

 

* * *

 

The arrangements are made, then, and Eric says at least two things that sound halfway-inappropriate; Tara and Nora and Pam all roll their eyes, Nora scribbles more exposition for Willa and Jessica whispers what still isn’t clear, and the date is set. Unsurprisingly, it’s Pam that needs the most convincing that this isn’t the dumbest plan possible, and she and Eric disappear down the stairs whisper-shouting about it at each other (“why the fuck are we wasting our time?” followed by “I told you, Pam, we’re building an army!”) while Nora briefs the babies on their time at the party, then excuses herself to go read over the files in the library, in peace and quiet.

Thus excused from duty, the girls all make themselves comfortable, Tara curling up in the armchair, Jessica and Willa sprawling out on the couch with their legs tangling together.

“You doin’ okay with all this?” Tara asks Willa. This being all the rumors of her death and all.

“Yeah,” Willa nods. “I mean, I knew what I was signin’ up for, and I knew that it would be a risk for Eric to take me in. And most of me’s not really surprised my dad doesn’t seem to be grievin’ too hard, or that he thinks I’m dead or whatever.”

“You are dead,” Tara points out, not unkindly.

“Well, yeah, I know, but it’s just… clearly it didn’t take long for it to turn from a missing persons hunt to draggin’ the state for my corpse,” Willa shrugs. “It’s not like I did this out of a cry for attention or something, y’know? I really did wanna help. Do.”

“You just didn’t realize that a part of you would still give a fuck what your dad thought of you,” Tara supplies. “I get that. My mom – she was neglectful my whole damn life, but I don’t think I gave up the part of me that still wanted to please her till she showed up at Fangtasia to see what I’d become.”

“Was she lookin’ for you?” Willa asks.

“Well, she heard I got myself turned, had to come see for herself just so she could tell me what a sin I was,” Tara shrugs. “But she didn’t know I’d died till way the fuck after the fact. It’s not like I wanted to run around advertisin’ it, or that I’d admit I gave two shits about what she thought, but for the longest time, I did. Hardest habit in the world to break.”

Willa nods, and Jessica, who’s been quiet all this while, murmurs her assent. “Are you nervous about when we have to face him?” she asks.

“Kinda,” Willa admits. “Are you nervous about Bill?”

“Yeah,” Jessica says. “But we’re gonna get through it. Promise.”


End file.
